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60. ROBERT FROST: The road not taken

Zen Pencils regular Robert Frost is back with one of his most famous poems. It’s easy to misinterpret this poem as being about living an awesome life after making some hard or unconventional choices, but I don’t think it’s about that at all. I read it as being about how one’s life is the sum of their decisions, for better or worse, and wondering if those decisions were the right ones. Once you make an important decision, say to backpack around the world instead of going to college, you meet people, things happen to you, you fall in love, opportunities arise and your life kind of snowballs into decision after decision until you’re dead.

That choice to go to college instead of going travelling is similar to what I did. After college, one of my best friends went backpacking around Europe and worked in the UK for 2 years and begged me to go with him. But being ‘Mr. Responsible’, I decided to start working straight away and focus on my career. I’ve always kind of regretted not going with my friend BUT I’m also grateful I didn’t. Soon after my friend left I got a job in a newspaper as a graphic artist. This led to me befriending the comics editor, which led to me convincing the editor to publish one of my comic strips. That led to me drawing a new comic every week for FIVE YEARS. That constant practice was the training ground every artist needs to become a professional. Also if I went to Europe, I probably wouldn’t have moved to Melbourne and met the amazing group of friends I have here. So the decision to stay was the right one … I think.

Let me just qualify everything I’ve ever written on this site by saying I’m 29, I don’t really know anything about life and I’m just trying to figure this shit out … one comic at a time. I’m NOT trying to be a self-help guru – these quotes are for my own benefit as much as yours.

– I’m keen to know how you interpreted the poem. Let me know if you agree or disagree with my adaptation in the comments.
– This has been requested by a few people including Richard, Alex, Trevor and Amit. Sorry if I forgot anyone.
– Melbourne arts and culture website Milk Bar ran a short article and interview with me talking about the site.

Well, I think the poem says it best: Two roads diverged on a yellow road, and sorry I could not travel both. We can only take one road, and we always take what we can get from them.

For example, if you ever fell in love more than once, you know the feeling: that is the one, and no one could take her place. But, after the first time, that feeling has an “again” at the end of it. And if it goes bad, you will fall in love again and it will be like that, again. Because all roads are good. It’s just that they are all different.

You just leveled-up the complexity of your themes. I like that you resisted taking another shot at corporate America (c’mon–such a big target) and aimed at something more subtle here. Love how you leave us with a question. Thank you for your work.

‘Let me just qualify everything I’ve ever written on this site by saying I’m 29, I don’t really know anything about life and I’m just trying to figure this shit out … one comic at a time. I’m NOT trying to be a self-help guru – these quotes are for my own benefit as much as yours.’

Which is why I like your comics so much. They don’t come across as pretentious or anything. They come across as honest, from the heart. I love your work and I urge you to keep going down the road you’ve chosen. Thanks.

Just great Gav. This was always one of my favorite Frost poems which we read in school. I’ve always marveled how even the most mundane of choices can sometimes take you on to a whole path to a life you could never have imagined, each decision leading to the next decision point. And my life has been just a marvelous adventure. And I don’t think you’re being preachy at all, but I appreciate you clarifying that at the end by saying these interpretations are as much for you as for us.

very nice, and an interesting take on this great poem. seems like Bob set the poem up, as you said, to show how decisions lead to decisions and the next thing you know your life happens. but i think that the ending was meant to be a surprise, to have greater impact on the reader, and to bring home the main point: be different, don’t walk the conventional path, take the road less taken and it will make all the difference.

of course maybe we’re all just interpreting in the way that best supports the paths we’ve chosen.

But how could he ever know where the other path would lead him? He can only know where he ended up because of the path he took. Even though it does seem he advocates “taking the road less traveled,” he still could never know.

I see in this different path a possibility to integration, synthesis, creativity, diplomacy. Just like putting together the opposite and getting partnership as result. For example, someone with similar desire that end up working with tourism in an office or its own city (or even business travelling).

I always thought this poem was an encouragement to follow the path less travelled by others (“I took the one less travelled by …”). But this comic gives a different interpretation, which surprised me. I had never considered the possibility that this poem might have more than one possible interpretation!

I’m so glad you chose this poem to turn into a comic, it’s one that means a lot to me too. I had the choice of going to Europe or right into university. I saw my life plotted out like I knew exactly what I would become if I went straight into college, so I decided to “take the road less traveled by” and go to Europe before finishing my undergrad – and it DID make all the difference

I had an entire paragraph to say but I just can’t get them out. The gist was I wanted to thank you for making this one. I’ve always wondered about the roads I could’ve taken and the roads I’m about to take and the what-could-have-beens and this poem’s just really special for me. The paragraph I had in mind was more articulate but okay, just… THANK YOU!

Once upon a time i used to write poetry, and my friends really liked the two that I have posted above… they are basically the same story told in two songs…

I know these aren’t any good when you compare it to the poetry you often put on your site… but in case you do like them, please feel free to illustrate them… i would love to see them in an illustrated format

Great job Gav. That’s a truly touching piece. I myself can relate to it since I’m on this crossroads myself now. 22 years old, not sure what exactly I wanna go study and want to go on a trip and leave everything else for later. Plenty of roads to take, but you can’t walk them all. Not in one lifetime anyway. But as your comic shows, each way has its own advantages and adventures and beautiful moments and feelings.
Thanks for that! As the people above said, waiting for the print

It’s not really a matter of choice, but this reminds me the moment I realized how some simple coincidences completely changed my life and made me who I am today.

Because of a girl I liked as a kid, I started learning Karate. Because of Karate, I met what is now my best friend. He joined the Dojo too after a while. We met two twin girls there, and as one became his girlfriend, I realized I was in love with the other. She rejected me, and I was depressed for two years. In these two years I passed my time watching documentaries and drawing stuff.

Now I’m finally over it for about two years now, and I came out of depression with a sum of knowledge that makes my friends consider me a walking encyclopedia, an appreciation for life that makes my enjoy every little thing, and an extreme interest in art with hopes of some day becoming a professional artist, as well as the most important thing in life: Real, genuine friends. And I’m really happy.

Who knows who I would be if just one thing happened differently in the past. It’s kind of scary considering it.

I liked how it started and ended in the same way, with the guy satisfied. We’ll actually never know which road would have been better, but what is important is you can keep on going, not looking back back.

I am a regular reader of ur blog and some of your work truly inspires me but this one, i m rather disappointed or probably, i am not able to relate the poem of Robert frost with your explanation. This is one of most written and recited poem which tells us to take a path which normally people dont take because its difficult, full of hurdles. It inspires me to do something different, unlike the normal people do. It tells me rise above the wave, flow in different direction, anyone can travel with the wave.

But, what i understand from your comic, you try to tell that evry path taken has a end which is different and probably satisfying. But for me, this poem says i ll be satisfied or i ll be happy only when i take that less traveled road. Initially i might find it difficult but the end will surely be joyous. This poem always preaches me to take that less traveled road because i strive for the satisfaction in the end and not the ease of the journey.
I might be wrong in interpreting your view but this is what i think so i wrote it.

I don’t understand why so many people cling to the final two lines only, and thereby miss the point of this poem. Gavin has interpreted it perfectly. Frost clearly tells you more than once that the two roads are identical, equally trodden, and equally covered with leaves. He then says that he will look back from some future point and claim that the road HE took was the one less traveled, because that will lend importance and intent to the otherwise arbitrary decision he made in choosing one to follow.

Of course, the poem is mostly about how there are some choices you have to make even if you don’t want to, and their outcomes make you what you are. But what makes this poem even better is that tinge of realization that no matter what arbitrary choices you make, you’ll probably rationalize them as meaningful decisions in retrospective. It could even be interpreted more cynically: most of the decisons that people defend were arbitrary choices in the first place.

Konst,I am very proud your interpretation is like mine.I’ve been readin first comments just thinking that my interpretation was somehow wrong yet there is someone else whose point of view is just like mine!
Again I appreciate your comment and GAV who makes us share our different views.

Loved it. Thank you for using one of my favorite. Though I never thought of this interpretation. I always thought of it in my own sense because I went about doing what friends and family expected but I wasn’t happy and I changed to do what I truly loved. And even though it isn’t as financially successful as before I am happier. And I believe I have grown as a person doing my own thing. And I do believe that you Gav have also taken the brave path by making this website and kudos to you too. But I liked your interpretation to. Makes more sense as I too have friends who are truly happy with a successful corporate lifestyle.

Love this one Gav- it’s so easy to always think of the “other” as better. Be it the other person, other country or other job. I think if you can take that road less travelled every day, be kind to a stranger, try something new, listen to a new story; to me that is the real way to enrich your life. The road less travelled is right in front of you!

Love your interpretation Gav. It’s different to the one I associate with the poem but I think yours is true too. It’s a good reminder to avoid the ‘grass is greener’ perspective and appreciate where you are now.

Hey Gav.
This must be my favorite poem ever. That’s why I’m having a hard time with the interpretation you gave here. The Paintings are wonderful, Really!

I just think that Robert Frost meant that he chose a road- The one less traveled by- even though he wanted to take both.. your strip indicates that it doesn’t matter which road you take you’ll end up the same- but I beg to differ..
Non the less your interpretation is interesting and you draw beautifully!! Keep up the good work!!

You do not end up the same. The two persons depicted in this comic have radically different lives, except for the fact that they are both satisfied and happy. Who says that happiness only lies at the end of the less traveled road? Robert Frost just mused on the many crossroads we encounter during life and where our choices lead us.

I really like your take on this classic poem. I also don’t think there is a wrong path (mostly – life of crime?), and at times we all second guess choices that we made along the way.

There are things I regret not doing as a younger man. Things that seem impossible now, but I love my life and wouldn’t really change how things turned out. Unless I could have won the lottery or something! 😀

My friends were attacked by a couple of thugs for no reason and that day I just decided that I didn’t want to hang out with them. A friend of mine was offered a ride home by a cereal killer… thank god she said no.

Such little things, so life changing.

And not just great things like that.. today I chose to shower and shave and i feel better for it.. funny how that works isn’t it? Infinite branches from infinite branches..

I love your take on it — especially your willingness to portray both choices as essentially equal while being different. “As for that, the passing there had worn them really about the same . . . ”

I see the man in your final image as serene rather than distressed by the fact that his choice was one that he could not go back and unmake/remake. He knows his life has been good, even though it could not be all things. And I love that.

That’s how most of those decisions really are, after all. We should not torment ourselves with the idea that we “might have missed a magnificent chance” by taking the road we took. There are magnificent chances on every road.

I set this poem to music when I was in college. I love your approach to it.

Reminds me of the movie “Mr. Nobody”.
I for one believe that we can not really make a decision, that every step we take is predetermined by our past and that we can only experience our lives like a good book that we read for the first time.
This thought doesn’t bother me, though.
Also, I appreciate your work.
Thanks!

There’s a jerky interpretation of the poem that gives it an extra layer. Notice that in the descriptions of the two roads, they aren’t different at all: “Though as for that the passing there/ Had worn them really about the same.”

At the poem’s end, he declares that he will “tell all this with a sigh,” ages and ages hence, though the paths were virtually identical.

He’s describing deliberate self-mythologizing more than independence. The poem is about claiming the value of independence and trailblazing, rather than the actual value of independence and trailblazing. To be charitable, you could call it the deliberate creation of a synecdoche for his life; to be less so, you could call it the deliberate creation of an exaggerated fable to make himself sound more important and brave than he was.

I have read that poem several times in my life. Now I’m at the age of the guy at the end. I appreciate the insight that whichever path you take, you are still you. You can’t get away from you. If you don’t like what happens to you as the result of your choices or random happenings, the only possible way to take another path is to change yourself. Sometimes we don’t see ourselves as we are and don’t know just how many choices we actually have.

Thank you, sir. Another of your fine pieces got to me, in particular because he was happy after each decision. I had the chance to visit Robert Frost’s home after choosing to take back roads instead of the interstate going home (MN) from a tech writing assignment in FL. I hope you don’t think me vain, but as a thank you, here’s a link to a (completely unrelated) humorous poem I wrote. I think you will enjoy it. http://writing-rag.com/1352/fish-poem/
and Thank You.

“Once you make an important decision, say to backpack around the world instead of going to college, you meet people, things happen to you, you fall in love, opportunities arise and your life kind of snowballs into decision after decision until you’re dead.”

I’m 24 and this sums up how I feel more and more often these days. However, there’s a few other famous lines I like to keep in mind:

“yes there are two paths you can go by,
but in the long run –
there’s still time to change the road you’re on”

Which to me has always meant that we tend to stay on the same path, snowballing from decision to decision, as you put it, largely because we PERCEIVE that we’re stuck. Take you’re college vs travel example – there is nothing whatsoever to stop the dissatisfied college student from packing in a degree and travelling, except inner resistancen that says, ‘Oh but you have so much debt, oh you’ll never get a job, etc.’

I’ve also always felt Frost’s poem to have something of a non-comformist streak to it – I mean he takes the road less travelled purely because it’s less travelled. That is the deciding criteria. In other words, he doesn’t won’t to live out the same stale existence as everybody else, and he has a better chance of avoiding that if he veers away from the well-trodden path.

The essence of the poem I think is summed up quite well in ‘Into the Wild’ when Chris returns to the city and looks at some sharply dressed fellow laughing in a bar, and sees his own face winking back at him.

I must admit I am not a bug fan of inspirational quotes and stories in general. But this one strangely touched me.

Each and every day for a few years now, I can not help but imagine how each mindless and insignificant decision I take might affect my life or the life of others in the longterm. I keep imagining “what if” alternate realities and sometimes I wonder if a simple piece of knowledge which I accidentally acquired could come in handy in the future, when I least expect it.

Being a scientist I am far from a fatalist. Quite the contrary. But seeing how much effect “random” events affecting me and my environment had in my life is kind of intriguing.

Now, I’ve read somewhere that Frost is being sarcastic here and by saying “the road not taken” he meant to mock the popular “the road less travelled” concept. Is this true? I am as knowledgeable in poetry as I am in nuclear physics…

Of course we can claim the more conventional interpretation as valid but that bothers me.

Hi there! I’m from Argentina and I got to your website one day and I loved it from the very first moment. I’m currently studying graphic design and I admire your work. You take these beautiful and wise words from great people all over the world and transform them into colorful messages.

I never had the courage to send you a message myself but this work in particular “hits the spot”. I’m 24 and I’m scared of the future. I doubt my work can be any good but I still try anyway. And everytime I feel a little bit down I go to your site and find comfort in the words and colors and forms and experiences…

Anyway, guess what I’m trying to say is thank you for your work, it really gives me hope to become a great designer and believe in what I choose to be.

Hi Gav. I just found your site when i was browsing for that sagan comic you made. Well, this poem is one of my favourite. And how i interpret it, is kinda same with your comic. I interpret it as a choice whether we take the safe road (crowded one) or less traveled one, with chances to meet new people and new events. But yeah, you’ll never know how your life might turn out once you walk out of the road. I really appreciate your work Keep on!

I love the comic. I saw it posted on a different website today, and it was incredible because that is exactly the way I’ve always interpreted the poem but I rarely find anyone who views it this way (or can express it so clearly). And the beauty of poetry is that everyone can interpret it differently, which is what makes the comments so interesting to read. Also, the poem is beautiful, and such an excellent choice to illustrate. I have to read the previous 60 now.

i also agree in the interpretation you gave the poem and it is amazing, but i somehow feel that you are trying to convince yourself that you made the “right” choice, but thats what i think the poem its all about, there are no right or wrong paths, the important thing is that you take your decision on your own and not because of the pressure of the environment. your whole life depends on choices.

there is one big thing that jumped at me…that either way he had a job and someone to love… I think so many times the reason we hesitate in choosing the road is we are afraid we will miss out on love…or miss out on a career….

What you shared reminds me of when I was in college…and I was working hard to cover all my bases…hoping to catch my big break…then I got a fortune cookie that said “you can’t ride the train in all directions” I remember taping that to my computer. Very nice work. Thanks man. J.

I just stumbled across you page. I have never interpreted this poem this way. I always felt that it takes great courage to take the road less traveled and only when you do that does true success ensue rather than taking the well beaten path.

But a great big thanks in adding this perspective. You are doing a great job at figuring out the shit ……… one comic at a time 😀 Brilliant job

Wow, I can see my life in this one. Really interesting how you interpretate it as it is easy to assume that the “road less travel” is the better one.

I moved from Hong Kong to California (choice made by parents as I was only a little kid then), from California back to HK after University, from HK to living in Europe after marriage.

Sometimes I wonder if I would be better off if I just stayed in one place and focus on my career instead of traveling and living in 3 different continents, sorta like how you wonder if it would be a better decision to travel to Europe with your friend.

But I wouldn’t have met the most amazing wife that I am together with now if I didn’t move and you wouldn’t have draw a comic every week for 5 years as a professional which led to the creation of this amazing blog.

So I am happy with all the good and the bad decisions that I made in the past and I look forward to making the best choice out of what I have today to create my future.

Gav, you are an incredible, insightful and wise person. I appreciate your interpretation!
In high school, I learned another interpretation (which is no more valid than yours, but one I wanted to share anyway). Judging from Frost’s other poems, he might be exploring the choice of suicide, and the difficult decision to keep on living despite the challenges of life.
Just thought I’d throw that out there!

Frost asks us to look back to the past. In life every one has to choose from the available options. We are at cross roads. We cannot have all options. We have to choose the less trodden path and never repent . Have the courage to DECIDE at cross roads…

In my almost four years of college level English courses, I’ve heard several interpretations of this poem, but the one that comes up the most is essentially that Frost is saying neither path was really any better or more interesting, but that people have a tendency to look back on their lives and attribute great meaning to meaningless things. When he says “I shall be telling this with a sigh…” he’s telling a self-deprecating joke about how he knows he’s going to wind up being another old person with a lot of supposedly meaningful, but ultimately pointless, stories to tell.

To me this poem is about indecision. Not only being indecisive, but being decisive enough to take a path.

He starts the poem with an apology, about how he couldn’t be more than one person, and how he couldnt take both roads, and how eventually, because each decision leads to a different set of decisions, he couldn’t go back (or in other words, sorry he couldnt travel it ALL).

But he took a path. he didn’t turn back because what about the path in front of him? He decided, with many many decisions stacked up on each other, not to retrace his steps back, but to travel to new ground he’s never seen before. Grounds he came upon trodding down the pathways of his decisions.

He acknowledges, to me, that he wanted to travel the ways he didn’t get to travel when faced with decisions, and is saddened by it, and shows he’s somewhat regretful of it with his apology. But he made those decisions. And he came to where he is. He acknowledges that even though he’ll never know the other path, he knows this path now. Because he dared to venture, rather than retracing back over and over again and being counterproductive.

I hope that this long comment didn’t bore or confuse you, I’m not very good with providing concise ideas when i have so many things to think/talk about haha.

I really liked your comment but Im afraid to tell you thats not the correct interpretation. You get close for moments but, like most people, you dont get the real meaning. If you want to know what the truth about this poem is read this entry, the one written by Garret P.http://www.truthcontest.com/insights/team-insights/
Thats the only correct answer. And yes, im being objective. I you dont belive me read the rest of the website and you will realize im right:

“Let me just qualify everything I’ve ever written on this site by saying I’m 29, I don’t really know anything about life and I’m just trying to figure this shit out … one comic at a time. I’m NOT trying to be a self-help guru – these quotes are for my own benefit as much as yours.”

yes dude,….this one’s the best poem i have ever seen….i don’t know why inherently,..i deeply involve in the scene even reading it for hundred times…..may be this is the essence a poem has to have. or may be ,..as it says…i might have chosen a road ,…which i hope would be the best suited for me

This poem said to me that both road were the right road, there are no right or wrong roads as he would have enjoyed his journey just as much on either, it tells me to live the moment and not look back or forward but instead accept and enjoy – we all make our own destiny by the choices we make at any one moment in time, but even a wrong decision at that moment in time was exactly the right decision to make.

This has been probably my all-time favorite poem. Currently, as I am going to receive my bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering in may, this quote has been on my mind. I am trying to decide upon going to Canada to try to work for a heli-ski company or to take a normal entry-level engineering job. It’s hard to know which path will make all the difference. Thanks Gavin, for all of the inspiration.

This is a poem about stasis. It’s about being paralyzed by decisions, rather than about nonconformity or choice. The man is cowardly and ultimately grows old in the wood, unable to choose a path for fear of choosing the wrong one. That is why it is called The Road Not Taken rather than The Road Less Travelled. Taking any road at all is what makes the difference to the narrator, not the fact that it is less travelled- they are worn about the same.

I remember reading this poem in class in high school. Our teacher gave a counterculture interpretation of it. He did his best to inspire us to protest injustice and fight for our beliefs. I understood what he was doing but I felt compelled to argue that just because a road is less traveled does not make it the better choice.

My example? I said, “Just because everyone wears clothes doesn’t mean that not wearing clothes is a good idea!”

This is unbelievable!
I gave a public speech last year about this time about how I came to North America on a student visa from Africa ( A real struggle it was) and I started my speech with this poem and ended with the last line from it …
Its the same story except I am still in the middle of it … thank you so much for doing this one this way and for all of this fantastic blog … whenever I have a bad day, whenever I am so homesick and starting to question my life and my goal, I come back to look at this …
Not only I find it comforting… but it reminds me that its not bad to aim for the stars even when everyone expects you to keep your eyes on the ground .. thank you so much.

Agree with lots of comments here but does anyone think that Frost implies that the road less travelled is often the more difficult one. The easy route generally reaps fewer rewards but more disciplined people tend to have an easier life in the long run. Has anyone read the psychology self help book for people with depression ‘The Road Less Travelled’? This promotes self discipline as a tool for securing a happier disposition. In the basest of terms, say you choose to go out the night before work and get really drunk. The next day you feel like crap, you’re tired, you can’t perform properly and you regret your actions the night
before. Even worse you might ‘throw a sickie’ and spend all day feeling bad about letting down your boss, colleagues etc. Worst scenario, you could lose your job. However, if we do the harder thing and say ‘no’ to the party or even harder still, turn up, have one or two drinks and go home early to bed, we get up the next day bright eyed and bushy tailed with no regrets about the night before. And, there will always be other parties on more appropriate evenings when it wouldn’t matter what time it was or how drunk we got. I expect people will think what a goody goody, life’s too short, grab it with both hands but Im speaking from experience, Ive took the easy route all my life and as my old dad says (who would not have a clue about analysing poetry) ‘Life has a funny habit of creeping up on you and biting you on the arse! Be careful what you choose to do, things you do now will affect you in the future. I have learnt this lesson the hard way but even now don’t always do the difficult thing. I’ts so much easier to opt for the road more commonly travelled, the road which feels safe and gives us more or less instant gratification, the less travelled road is unfamiliar territory to us, so is less comfortable and more challenging.

Today March 7th is actually World Book Day, and what better approach to celebrate than by winning yourself probably none, but TWO scorching sizzling, full-length erotic novels through the fab Tiffany Reisz along with published by our friends at Mills & Boon! These books are not available for purchase online at STB! so this exclusive prize is the best only way to have them. e have Tiffanys sizzling, devastating and sinfully erotic book. an Lady Lager could go unnoticed If you wish to see more fun and also creative pictures of sextoys, visit th. p buying the LELO Luna Drops, a set of kegel exercisors. She loves them! The Luna Beads are usually great! I wear them while I really do laundry, grocery shop, run errands and work out (its just a lot of fun to be carrying out healthy, sexy exercises in the privacy of the pants). I really want to grab one of these brilliant sweet beads from Fun Factory to hold in my purse. If youre not obsessed about either of those, my best friend purchased this set and definitely loves it. hank you so much, Mistress Pineapple, for taking the time and energy to write about your visit around on your blog. And now, Im off to fulfill my sudden craving for a lot of tropical fruit.

Wow! I didn’t know it was a poem. I knew the text from a great song sang by Lyriel – a German folk group. Suggestively as it may seem, the music is called The road not taken. You guys should totally check it out. The song is beautiful and perfectly captures this poem’s soul.

Stumbled upon this blog from FB. Really nice to see how you parallel the possibility and the reality. Well, as someone, sometime had said “whatever happens, happens for the best”. I am sure you feel the same. I think.
Keep up the good work. Moving on to your other articles.

I interpret as this: any road you take it leads you to the same end! How would you know if the choice or decision you made was right or wrong unless you don’t tread that road. I feel we ought to make a choice and live it through, without regrets. Else you will always wonder “What if I had only taken the other road instead”.

Amazing comic, exactly what I needed to read. To me it’s not necessarily about the ‘physical’ path that you take but your perception of it. You might be strolling down the most beautiful walkway in the world but if your mind is in turmoil it will mean nothing to you.

In your case, I believe there were at least two such junctions. One when your friend asked you to go to Europe with him and the other when you met the newspaper editor. The first one is pretty obvious. But the second one is not. you could have decided to take the college course which would make you the most money and worked hard at it, ignoring other hobbies, but you decided to ask him to publish your comics.

I guess Frost was not totally right. There is no one junction in your life with two paths. life’s a fractal, with such important junctions at every step and every decision we make. May be we kid ourselves in saying that something is wrong or right with our life because of some choice we made ages ago.

Hi Gavin! Congrats for your job! It’s pretty amazing! I liked very much of this one in particular. It reminded me about one quotation that I like: “Sometimes the wrong choices led us to the right places!”.

Love your interpretation. You’ve helped give a face to one of my favourite poems. It is funny how in life one thing leads to another and you’ll never know if it would have made life better or worse. Will definitely introduce it to my students too. Thanks!

ive heard these quotes many times before, but your illustrations make them so much easier to understand!! i just wanted to thank you for all that you are doing.i am finding so much inspiration and well.. “ahh haa” moments from your website. life is full of unexpected twists and turns but the beautiful thing is the choice. your choices have led you to create this website. my choices brought me here. this has reminded me that its okay to reflect, but not to regret… and that has made all the difference.

I think what he means by “the one less traveled by” is the one of your own choosing. The one that you solely choose and not be affected by any factors at own. Because it’s what you want, so you choose to go on that road. So if we look at it this way, going to college or backpacking are equally regarded as “the one less traveled by” provided that you are the one who chose it, not others.

To me, “the one less traveled by” has always means the path where people go without thinking about their own wants. The path where we just go because we see others people are going too.

Basically he says that there were two roads and that they were about equally worn with similar leaf covering (i.e., neither was the “one less traveled by”). So he took one. However, sometime in the future, he knows he’s going to lie about it and say that he took the one that was less traveled by and he will attribute his current status to that decision.

So basically he made an arbitrary decision, but later in life will lie to others (and perhaps himself) about the importance of that decision. I think it’s a comment on how people look back at what were (at the time) arbitrary decisions and place great import on them because we’re far enough along at that point that we can’t fathom any alternative state of being. For example, “I’ve I’d never done/said/met X then Y would never have happened.”

I actually think your interpretation in the comic (if not in the text below it) is one imagined scenario with some decision (though you chose what I think many would not consider to be an arbitrary one) that is a least closer to the meaning than I’ve typically seen people do.

I love the way you have played around with the possibilities of the quote. In my case, I want to break away from what I am doing and do something new. Your interpretation and the power of the quote inspires me to take that risk. Thanks!

Hi. I am from Bombay, India & a big fan of your work. It’s really amazing how you give life to all these inspirational Quotes and take them to a whole new level. The way you mix wisdom with creativity is amazing. Out of all your work, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost is the 1st one I read and relate to the most. I would love to get this on poster or a canvas so that I can hang it in my room. I can’t seem to find the poster or canvas for this on your store. I’d appreciate if you could help me out. Thanks a ton and keep up the amazing work. You are inspiring millions.

I LOVE your take on this. It’s so often used as a “take the one less taken!!” inspiration, when what he’s really saying is “you’ll have to pick one either way” – reportedly, the poem was written in response to a friend of Frost’s who was legendarily indecisive.